Slide Steps
by Zarius
Summary: Within the Multi-Verse, there is turbulence on the tracks and a rip in the road. As Corinth is put on alert, only one individual has the necessary understanding to save the city, but can he be trusted when his double could not?
1. Chapter 1

**POWER RANGERS AND SLIDERS:**

**"SLIDE STEPS"**

**WRITTEN BY ZARIUS**

**DISCLAIMER: Power Rangers and all trademarked characters are owned by Saban Brands. SLIDERS are trademarked by UNIVERSAL. No profit shall be made from this venture**

* * *

**CHAPTER ONE**

"Well, it's time to take the fight against evil back to my own world" said Scott Truman as he prepared to board the inter-dimensional travel train docked within the Panorama City subway, having travelled to a world where a different group of Power Rangers, and the human race, were thriving.

There had been a clash of personalities, even a physical clash that pitted Scott's wits and skills against the leader of this dimension's Rangers, Jayden, but ultimately this battle between them proved to be a ruse to fool their enemies and they were able to get the drop on their adversary, a devious machine being known as Professor Cog and a Nighlok General called Shifter.

They were able to overcome their differences and rally together to defeat an unholy alliance between the Nighlok forces of this world and the ruthless and malicious machines of Scott's own.

This team of Rangers had even gotten to meet Scott's own group after they were temporarily sucked into his home dimension by Professor Cog. With the assistance of Doctor K and the remaining Rangers on Scott's team, they were able to return to their own world.

"Say hi to your team for us" said Emily.

"I wish you could demorph" said Mike as the two walked over to the centre of the train, "So I could thank you face to face"

The doors of the train slid open, and Scott stepped into them

"I see the way she looks at you"

"Hey guys, you ever wonder how a train can just travel to another dimension as easily as the snap of a finger?" said Mike

"We experience stranger things over on our end of the universe" Jayden said

"I think you mean multi-verse" said Jake

"Scott's team were pretty sharp, I admit I had a bit of a crush on the Scottish Ranger" said Mia.

"That makes sense, between your love of cooking and their love of frying, you'd get on like a kitchen on fire" joked Kevin, "Provided you don't set the kitchen on fire of course"

The Samurai Rangers laughed and proceeded to walk out of the tunnel. As they did so, Jayden took one further glance back at the tunnel

And so the Samurai Rangers went back to their regular lives, little knowing that within the tunnel, fresh problems were about to be triggered

Inside the train, Scott looked at his left arm and tapped slightly onto it, a binary code began to materialize within the fabric of his uniform, dotted in black letting that was enhanced by a velvet glow, igniting the code and making it visible. Scott tapped on three letters and two numbers and then gently nodded his head

Scott felt a slight tremor beneath his feet and the insides of the train began to vibrate and shudder. As he approached a bright, shimmering light that violently fluxuated and, in several instances, began to gradually shrink and then balloon in size

"What's going on?" said Scott as he gazed on in awe at the sight before him, managing to make out a vivid shape at the center of the unstable nexus, a technologically advanced, towering city with a long stretch of runway across it. A sharp-edged and brightly eagle eyed vehicle flying overhead, violently pushing itself forwards and backwards, pounding away at an invisible barrier.

Finally, the buckling ended, the city faded from view, and the wormhole stabilized again. The train flew through and arrived at its intended destination.

As Scott clambered out of the train, he was greeted by familiar faces, his team mate Ziggy, Col. Truman, his father, and Doctor K.

"Scott, are you ok?" she said, pulling out a small micro probe and scanning him "Don't budge, I have to check that series Red's bio external defenses haven't been in any way contracted by the energy emissions

"In short, she was looking for creases in your spandex" said Ziggy.

K gave him a scowling look.

"What the heck happened to me in there?" said Scott, "The wormhole went…nuts on me, that have never happened before, I almost ended up somewhere else"

"If it's any comfort, you'd still have been home" said K, "What you saw WAS Corinth"

"Really?"

"Same place, same location, just a different dimension, like the Earth you had just visited" said K, putting away her probe and anxiously patting Scott on the shoulder, "There, erm, clean health bill, or something"

"I'm teaching her all the tricks of being a good examiner. All that's needed now is the lollypops" said Ziggy cheerfully

"But what could have nearly thrown me off course like that?" said Scott

"That's what we aim to discover. While you were gone, we received a group of visitors with technology similar to the inter-dimensional toys that the good Doctor has been tinkering with over the scale of the year" said Truman.

"…Wait, does that mean…did Logan come back? And with friends?" said Scott.

"Three of them have eluded us, we suspect the cartel have them in hiding, but we have one in custody, the individual underwent a physical and bio imprint scan, and there were some…interesting results.…well, you'll have to see for yourself…"

Scott and Truman casually walked away from the parked Train; Ziggy looked at it, transfixed

"Why did Scott go for the ride and not the rest of us?" said Ziggy, "I'd kick tail for a cruise on this"

"And what if you'd been lost to the twin-cast?" said K

"Twin…what?" asked a perplexed Ziggy, trailing off

"I didn't tell either Scott or the Colonel, and I don't intend to tell them until I've had a chance to interrogate the person in custody myself, but the emissions in the temporal tunnel feed were caused by twin-cast buffering, two external dimensions bleeding into one another, think of it like attaching one step to a multi-verse staircase, it takes a tremendous hammering from the top AND the bottom, so far the bottom is unwilling to co-operate, but if _not_ complimented, the maintenance being done on the top will remain unfinished and the tears it's causing will pierce through into other reality, and STAY torn up"

"Why are you dumping this info on me? I'm not exactly wired this way" said Ziggy

"I'm learning to share" said K.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

* * *

Scott had to double-check as he examined the printed results of the bio-imprint scan for the man his father had in custody.

"These heat patterns…the chromosomes are different, but everything else is exactly the same" he said, "Like they're completely in-synch. Doubles"

"Exactly" said Truman, "Fortune seems to be having a field day with us, this individual is Logan St. Clair's near exact biological twin…the only difference is one is male and the other female"

"Has he said anything?" asked Scott.

"He's concerned for his friends, which is probably why it's best he talk to you" he said.

"Me?" asked Scott.

"When we told him about Logan, he brought up that she had manipulated him too, in both a professional and a personal manner. Given how many handsome evenings you spent with her yourself, I'd say you two have enough common ground that you can cover"

"Take me to him, I'll see what I can get out of him" said Scott.

"Just one other thing" said Truman, "This matter has forced the council to reopen some old wounds regarding Logan's advancements. They want to go ahead with the advancements on the Turbo Falcon"

"That's insane" exclaimed Scott, "You saw from what Logan worked on with K how unstable bio-sentience can prove to be on smaller devices"

"They're under pressure from the Multi-Choice think tank focus groups to boost public awareness of the bio-field and the experiments we're conducting with our defenses. They reckon so long as we're at war that it's meant to be a fight for all, not just a fight for some"

"Not everyone is qualified to be a solider" said Scott in protest, "This is why I worry so much about the war stretching as long as it has. It's not terrifying people anymore…it's exciting them"

Truman nodded in agreement.

Scott was quickly led from the research lab to the central Corinth prison facility, where he met face to face with the prisoner.

He had both feet up on the table, his arms folded, a stern and controlled look from his eyes digging into Scott's usually relaxed demeanor

"Hey" said Scott as he entered the cell.

Quinn Mallory gave him a cold look back.

"Nice perm" he said.

Scott raised his hands to reach into his hair and ruffled it slightly, "Goes against regulations. That's fine though, because I'm not military. I just give them a hand here and there. Mind if I pull up a chair"

"I don't mind because you don't matter" said Quinn, "All that matters are the safety of my friends, now where are they?"

"They…may be in the custody of a powerful crime family that forms part of the little community we got going here. We're looking into it, we have someone familiar with how they operate working within our team ranks"

"You have a team?" asked Quinn.

"Yeah. Solid group" said Scott, handing Quinn a photograph of his group.

"Not bad...but not mine" said Quinn, tossing the photograph back to Scott.

"Look, I get you're mad, don't have answers, we're sort of in the same boat. We've had a rough few days"

"I've been told that" said Quinn, "You went to another dimension. You've slid. You know of Slider technology, care to tell me a bit about that?"

"You never forget those kind of first dates" replied Scott.

Quinn raised an eyebrow.

Scott talked at length about Logan St. Clare, he could tell the tension in the cell was building, he could feel anger vibrate from Quinn's looks, despite his attempt at reeling himself in emotionally.

He talked to him of the time Logan had arrived in Corinth, how she had struck up a friendship with Doctor K, how she proposed the development of bio-field sentience in the defensive systems of the city, how she had struck up a romance with him on the side, and how all those elements culminated in the creation of something so terrible that Scott could not speak it's name and dressed it up as the result of a classified basis, but Quinn, being a good reader, could tell it was something personal to him.

"So…is this L.A? Because I only programmed Logan's geo stabilizer to pinpoint her continuous drop zone within a specific perimeter" said Quinn, changing the subject for now.

"It's been so long since the Earth was scorched by the Machines that we've forgotten what a lot of our cities and sectors were originally called"

"Help me find my friends first, then I'll clear up whatever mess Logan's made, then we can go on our merry way. The last time I checked my timer before it was taken from me, it read that we had twenty-two hours, and I've been cooped up in here for seven. I don't have forever and a day, so if you want my help, I need help in getting that timer back, whatever it takes" said Quinn.

"I don't know if that's the smart thing yet" replied Scott.

"You seem to regret ever associating with Logan. That's the smart thing…and that's also the right thing" said Quinn.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

* * *

Within the bio-grid, evil was stirring.

Evil that had experienced a setback even as It was still dealing with its set back of long ago.

Professor Cog had fallen.

Venjix could _feel_ it.

Even in defeat, however, Cog had proven the point made to Venjix by the then-present Logan St. Clare during their communication with one another.

At Logan's urging, Professor Cog had been given a neural communicator which enabled him to transmit specific details, sights, and sounds of his visit to Panorama City, the society that encircled the alternative to the location Corinth was stationed in.

In addition to that, Logan had used her resourcefulness with her own sliding technology to equip Cog with the capabilities to open and close wormhole vortexes around both himself and unsuspecting victims, as had proven to be the case with that world's own version of Power Rangers.

This had caused Venjix some concern. He was aware of alternate dimensions, alternate options from where to spread his power, but he had not been prepared to entertain the possibility of dealing with other Power Rangers besides the ones he was concerned with.

An attack on the city by his Grinder forces had been thwarted by a combination of the RPM and Samurai Ranger teams prior to that group being sent back to their own world.

And now Cog had fallen.

Venjix realized that if he were to place one foot on the soil of an Earth different to the one he had long laid waste to, he had to be thorough. He had to have something in his possession that could drive the defenders of that world to real distraction.

Fortunately, he had the solution.

As the young Truman had said, and that he had picked up on via his continuous and unique connection to the Red Ranger, war had been _exciting_ the people.

The public were more focused on the devil in the details these days, they wanted to know what necessities were being made to combat evil, and if what they needed was a necessary evil in itself.

The Turbo Falcon project was one such necessity.

And thanks largely in part to what Logan had fed to him through their correspondence, Venjix had the answer.

The Falcon was presently out of his reach, firewalled by a meticulous system crafted by Venjix's own encoder, Doctor K.

She had even perfected and housed within the Falcon a unique distress signal, one with a sizeable planetary range. If it were ever unpackaged, for whatever reason, it would set off the signal , enabling any Ranger in the vicinity to come to its aid and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

Prior to being forced to flee Corinth due to the length of her slide trip expiring, just before her meddling was uncovered too late by K and the Rangers, Logan had supplied Venjix with a copy of the signal, so as to lure the Rangers into a trap if necessary, using the Falcon as bait.

A unique opportunity, however, was leading to grander plans.

The twin-cast buffering was creating chaotic tears in the fabric of reality. K and her team had opted to investigate rather than immediately remedy the situation. An opportunity Venjix would take sufficient care of.

He already had a back-up of Cog's memories, personality, and other-dimensional experiences hardwired into his conscience, data he would pour back out into his factories and develop into a new version of his faithful and frightful science aid. When the time was right, he would send him back into the world he had been aggressively thrown out of, and he would utilize the distress signal to lead the Rangers into ruin.

All that he needed now was the Falcon Zord.

All he needed now was for war to excite the people, and to ignite the spark that would give him his sought-after sun.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

* * *

Ziggy dismayed at the mess Doctor K had left her lab in.

The place was littered with notes and open case files. Some had been allowed to slip onto the floor. Some of them had even been trodden on.

Behind him, K was clearing a few desks out, trying to find anything she had previously written up on the slide stream and travel train.

"Did you ever wonder why we put ourselves through that?" asked Ziggy as K looked through a cabinet of video CDs, tossing many of the unlabelled ones that she knew to be blanks to the floor and putting aside any with a specific letter written on them to one side.

"My dealings with the devious weren't as steep in compromise as a _date _with them, but it did just as much damage in hindsight" K answered.

"I meant this" said Ziggy, pointing to the video feed he had activated.

K turned around and viewed the feed in question, it was the short-lived run of episodes the Rangers had developed for the Corinth Kids Network based off their adventures in reality.

"Ah yes. That" replied K.

"The networks wanted something informative, exciting and compelling. I'd rather the tykes sit down and, rather than watch the trivial matters on a corny children's network, they pay more attention to a lecture on the output of a Quantum bridge network"

"I actually had to look that up" said Ziggy, "It's something to do with a multiblock structure that connects two potentially distant network fragments together"

"You're trying to sound clever" said K.

"I'm trying to keep up" said Ziggy, slightly taken aback by the accusation, "You should know me to be someone who makes the effort now and then by this point"

"By this point, we ought to have found the old video logs I had made when we were co-operating with Logan. Instead you're reflecting nostalgically on _very _tame television"

"It was for a good cause K. Kids need to feel reassured in this age of the big bad wolf making house calls daily. They don't just want to feel safe, they want safe…with an _attitude"_

"Is there_ any real point to this? _We don't need to be driven to such distraction" snapped K as she threw a folder down onto the table and picked out a small pink disc from its contents. Noticing a few smudges, she left a small breath on the back and gently rubbed it with the rim of her lab coat sleeves to remove the smudge.

"I think I've found it" she said, tossing the CD to Ziggy.

"Look, I'm just trying to break this to you gently" said Ziggy.

"Break what to me gently?" asked a curious K, her anticipation of potentially high irritation building.

"The networks have…kind of been in contact with us again. They want a new season. Of all of us doing our thing" explained Ziggy.

K sighed.

"It's a waste of resources" she said.

"I know. One executive at the network even took a look at the stock footage we'd built up and said '_just dub the whole thing'_, it was so 80s" Ziggy revealed.

"How much of this was at an upfront meeting?" she said.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ziggy asked

"Affiliate upfronts are full of promise, but if you cut through the spin, most shows they pitch don't last, and some don't even get to launch"

"But Power Rangers may just prove to be a keeper" said Ziggy

"Are you going to play this video log or not?" asked K. Ziggy awkwardly juggled it across both hands, giving K a sheepish look.

"What now?" asked K.

"Can I tell you about it first?"

"Tell me about what?" said K.

"The upfront. They had dancers on roller-skates listening to sounds from the retro 90s"

"I'm not the type for _any _sort of sport, let alone extreme ones" replied K.

"It was _so_ inviting, I suggested we get to do a whole year of the show focusing on just that element" Ziggy continued in an enthused state.

"Our Ranger Operation is more extreme than what passes for extreme in that regard, kids would be bored pretty easily if they were forced to settle for something less in between all the action" K argued.

"You know, you never _had _a childhood, so your handle on what kids tap into isn't exactly something I'd hang onto in this discussion" said Ziggy.

"That wasn't fair" said K.

"You weren't being fair" Ziggy snapped back.

Suddenly, the two were interrupted by Flynn McAllister, Ranger Operator Series Blue.

"I'd hate to interrupt the little quarrel here guys" he said.

"It's not an argument" said Ziggy.

"Yes, it is" said K.

"We haven't raised our voices the whole time" noted Ziggy

"I'm making my point without resorting to that" said K.

"Zig, Dillon wants you to join him at the east _Domino_ block. He's followed a lead on where that Mallory fella's mates may be"

"I'm on it" said Ziggy.

K huffed.

Ziggy walked over to her, handing her back the CD

"Look, I know you want to keep the twin-cast thing strictly between us for now, but the cartel is my field" Ziggy whispered, "I've got to help Dillon out on this. Maybe it'd be better if you did tell Truman. Be upfront about it"

"Sometimes that fails" K said.

"Never know if you don't put it out there first" replied Ziggy.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE**

* * *

"Out of the question" said Truman as he observed the frantic pacing of the prisoner Mallory within his cell via the security cameras in his office.

"Hear me out" said Scott.

"Putting your faith in another Mallory has earned us enough trouble" his father continued.

"He's lost, he's looking for home, he's got a responsibility to his friends to get them there. If you don't want to do it for him, do it for those missing, they're innocent parties" Scott insisted.

"Really? That's the line you're buying? You know who one of those in his party is? _Cryin' Man_. He was bad news with the Scorpions during the infancy of this city's operations. Ran a protection mob just north of here. In fact, I'm getting word the Scorpions located there again once they were certain that's who they helped elude our security measures"

"The crying stopped a long time ago with that cardiac arrest, you know that. This is all sorts of different. Dimension, man, the works. Quinn even tells me his Crying man sings for the soul, not sells souls out"

"If he's a prisoner of the Scorpions, he may be singing for survival. Rembrandt and the Cartel were on patchy ice when we lost him"

"So we're in agreement that this Rembrandt, an innocent, ought to be delivered from them?"

"We don't have all the specifics yet" said Truman

"So we just render this group helpless until we do? Do you know how cliche you sound right now? This is out of every 'prisoner of circumstance' drama I was subjected to as kid, its textbook"

"You could do with reading more books and seeing less films, you'd act less like a cowboy" said his father dismissively.

"I spent a good ten minutes in that cell playing good cop for you, can't you trust my intentions?" said Scott

"The Truman trust fund is coming up pretty short with the kind of people we're dealing with" said Truman, "As your last attempt at a romantic conquest proved to be"

"So this is still all my fault? I'm trying to do right, make up for that mistake, Mallory doesn't have to be something that drags the good will I'd built up previously underwater. I just came back from protecting one dimension from that crazy contraption Cog, let me help get this group out of our dimension too so we can earn some true closure"

Scott walked up to his father and placed both hands firmly on his shoulders

"Please" he continued, "It's not the smart thing, I know, but the right thing is usually the hardest for the head to work out in favour of the easy way out. You've always made the difficult calls….it requires faith, and I know that, no matter how many misfires you perceive there to be, always look out for that large percentage of success we've had so far"

Truman gave his son a steel gaze, but allowed himself to notice a glimmer of sincerity in his eyes, he calmly put both his hands up, signifying that he had given in.

He walked over to a small metallic triangular box to the right of his desk and removed its lid, he took out a small remote device, two electrodes embedded in its centre, with a LCD screen in the middle containing a series of numbers counting down from a specific set of hours and minutes.

Truman handed the device to Scott.

"This right here is faith, in the palm of your hand. You hang onto this and don't let it within the hands of the alpha Male Mallory until his group is secured, is that understood?"

"Thanks Dad" said Scott, "I've already got Dillon on top of things, he got in touch and told me Ziggy's on his way over to where we think the cartel have them locked up"

"You were already on top of this before I gave the ok?"

"Is THAT ok?" asked Scott half-jokingly.

"I'll save the spanks for later, go" said Truman.

As he departed the office, Doctor K walked by him

"Col. Truman?" she asked

"You look slightly shaken Doctor, anything the matter?" asked Truman.

"I need to be…upfront" she said.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

* * *

Ziggy, despite being a few minutes late than promised time of arrival, was mindful of the unpredictable mood of his good friend, Dillon, RPM Ranger Series Black and tried to keep a cool head as they slowly observed the situation together on the outskirts of the Cartel stronghold.

Several orbiting metallic lenses, each with razor-sharped triangular sides which rotated left and right, were generating a fiercely electrical spider-like web across the centre of the perimeter. Every now and then, small ignitions could be seen emitting from the soil beneath the lenses.

At the centre of the building block was a man trying to maintain his composure as he remained quietly seated in a chair. No ropes, no gags, nothing to bind him there except pure intimidation.

"Any movement so far from that guy?" said Ziggy.

"He doesn't dare move in case those grid grinders train their lasers on him. He'll be fried if he lifts one inch off that stool"

"He's bait then" said Ziggy.

"Looks like it" Dillon replied

"Do we swallow the fish hook then?" Ziggy asked.

"Of course we do" said Dillon

"Wait…we do?" said Ziggy, "No plan?"

"There's always a plan, mine just has to be one of attack" said Dillon.

"Time to get Ziggy with it" Ziggy remarked.

Dillon gave him a coy look.

"Oh, yeah, right, team work. Let's do this Dillon-gently" replied Ziggy in response to the look

Dillon rolled his eyes.

"RPM, get in gear" the two cried, and transformed. They made a dash for the perimeter. The lenses sensed where they were, the triangular objects attached to them rotated and let out a laser barrage.

Ziggy and Dillon somersaulted over the blasts with precision timing, took out their blasters and made quick work of the lenses, making sure to dodge each blast as they exchanged with firepower of their own.

They eventually made their way over to where the helpless hostage was, they could hear a distinctly soulful melody from him, as if he'd been singing and sometimes praying while a grid grinder hovered menacingly over him.

Ziggy pulled him off the chair just as the grinder let out a small piercing laser shot from above, disintegrating the chair. Ziggy leaped high in the air and let out a shot from his own blaster to the top of the grid grinder, obliterating it.

"How long have you been cooped up out here?" asked Ziggy.

"An hour at most, it was to draw you guys in, that's what they said" the main replied.

"That was remarkably easy" said Ziggy.

"Yeah, I think that's part of their plan too" the man said, "Lure you in with small fries, then cash your chips in with bigger fish"

"This is Cartel stock we're dealing with, not some Venjix barricade" said Dillon.

"You trying to tell me there are worse things in this thuderdomed doom cage?" asked the man.

"Inside or out, we're the best defence this city's got" said Ziggy

"You've got a bit of a cockiness to you kid, I like that, but we've got business to take care of. We need to get my friends safely out of here"

"You just told us we've been lured into a trap, forget it, we're bailing you out first, at least if you're together with Mallory you can figure something out from there"

"Hey, you know Q-Ball? How is he? What's he been doing? Does he have the timer? You got the time?"

"I've got all the time in the world for the late Mr. Brown" said Ziggy.

"How do you know who I was?" the man asked, a little taken aback

"Rembrandt Brown right? I thought I recognized you from somewhere" Ziggy said, aggressively shaking Remy's hand, "The cartel were big fans" he said in a sarcastic tone.

"Double? What, you KNOW about Sliding?" Remy asked.

"Let's just say we take a literal crash course in it" said Ziggy.


End file.
